How confidence works

The confidence card on every venue page is built from real diner outcomes — not a star average. Here is exactly how the evidence is weighed, in the order it matters.

1. 1

   Who reported — matched to you

   Every report carries the reporter’s allergy and severity, frozen as at the visit. A coeliac sees evidence from coeliac diners; someone with a severe nut allergy sees it from people managing the same. A reassuring report from a mild intolerance never counts as reassurance for anaphylaxis — severity is evidentiary weight, not just a filter.

2. 2

   What happened — the outcome

   The load-bearing field isn’t a star, it’s the outcome: no reaction, a reaction, a near-miss (“something felt off”), or unsure. A near-miss lowers the signal as an early warning, before anyone is harmed. One reaction among many clean visits is shown in proportion — never as a verdict.

3. 3

   How recently — freshness

   Allergy trust decays: staff, chefs, suppliers and menus all turn over. A glowing report from three years ago does not carry the weight of one from last week. Evidence is labelled fresh, ageing or stale, and old evidence quietly fades on its own.

4. 4

   Does the claim hold up

   When a venue states something — “dedicated gluten-free fryer”, “separate prep” — diners who ate there say whether they actually saw it. We show the agreement (or the gap) and grade how much evidence exists: strong, limited, or mixed. That grades the evidence, never whether the venue is safe.

5. 5

   Which way it’s moving — the trend

   Diners trust a direction, not a snapshot. We combine recent outcomes and freshness into a trend — improving, stable or declining — plus any recent change. A declining trend or a fresh change report is the most decision-relevant thing we can show you.

One thing we deliberately never do: publish a single “trust score”. A branded number gets read as a safety verdict, which is exactly what we refuse to issue. More on that in what we don’t do.